FAQ 5

Q  Why is it called ISO9000?

A  ISO 9000 began life as a British Standard in 1979. It was called BS 5750. That covered Quality Management Systems. It was updated in 1987.

In 1989, there was a new quality standard for design and manufacture of electronic assemblies. That standard is called BS 9000 (according to the BSI database, which is available via this web site) it covers "General requirements for a system for electronic components of assessed quality. Specification of general procedures".

Some of the management system elements that would be put into BS 9000 were incorporated into the second version of BS 5750 in 1987. (Some of the people working on BS 5750 also worked on BS 9000).

BS 9000 was released in 1989.

In 1994, ISO adopted BS 5750, but called it ISO 9000. They made no other changes.

Although it is popularly known as "ISO9000", the actual standard which contains the requirements that your organisation must meet is called "ISO9001".

In practice, the terms "ISO9000" and "ISO9001" are used interchangeably by most people, although this is technically incorrect.

A - In the UK, if you wanted to claim that your business meets the requirements of ISO9000 and print your own certificate saying so, that probably wouldn't be illegal, unless you clearly didn't meet the requirements. But, who would believe you?

You could get a friend to check you and print his own certificate. But again, who is he/she to say so? Who would believe what they say? (They're your friend, so they are hardly independent or impartial, are they?).

What you really need is a totally independent, qualified and respected organisation to confirm that your business meets the requirements of ISO9000. In the UK, the Government Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) has appointed an agency "UKAS" to accredit suitable certification bodies. To be acceptable, Certification Bodies must be able to demonstrate that they have the required levels of competency in all of the business sectors in which they work. They must be able to demonstrate a totally independent and impartial process for conducting assessments and reviewing the results.

All of this takes time and money but it ensures that a certificate awarded by a UKAS accredited Certification Body is a true mark of excellence. The same process applies with ANAB in the USA and with NSAI in Eire etc.

But, there are a number of Certification Bodies who are not accredited by UKAS. Many of them seem to go out of their way to give the impression that are properly accredited by claiming they are "accredited" but not saying by whom, or by saying that they are accredited by some "International Council" or similar (which may just turn out to be a shed in a back street in Rotterdam, or similar).

Generally, these unaccredited certification bodies will come along, give the client a mail merged standard set of procedures and then give them a certificate upon receipt of a lot of money. This is a meaningless exercise.

  Some of their clients feel aggrieved when they find that their customers don't accept the certificates. Some others do this quite cynically, trying to deceive their own customers (if they had any brains, they'd save themselves thousands of pounds and print their own meaningless piece of paper!) 

This cynical money grabbing exercise merely demeans the hard work of the companies that actually strive to produce a product or service which meets their customer's requirements, under a properly accredited ISO9000 system. 

Support the cause. Don't buy goods or services from companies who have an unaccredited certificate. If in doubt, ask us!